Conservation District Rebuffs Pipeline

Board Votes 5-2 To Reject Easement

Lakehead Pipe Line Co. will begin evaluating its options after the McHenry County Conservation District refused to grant an easement Thursday night for the company's crude-oil pipeline project.

The 5-2 vote against granting Lakehead an easement was met by wild applause from the more than 100 people who had turned out for the special Conservation District board meeting.

"I think it took a lot of guts for these people," said Steve Sartell, a Huntley-area resident. "It's a monument to Lakehead's belief that everyone has a price that these people (the board members) finally stood up and said they could not be bought."

The Conservation District property was the last piece needed for Lakehead to complete the pipeline in McHenry County. Although Lakehead was turned down by the district, company officials said the vote does not block construction of the pipeline.

Lakehead offered the Conservation District a 122-acre parcel in exchange for the easement. The company estimated the value of that land at $1 million.

"We will look at a reroute and other alternatives at our disposal," said Denise Hamsher, spokeswoman for Lakehead.

Without the Conservation District easement, the company will have to lay an additional 16 miles of pipeline.

Ken McCreary, Conservation District board member, said he did not support the proposal because he didn't think that granting an easement was consistent with the mission and policies of the district to preserve open space.

Board member Bill Howenstine said that to endorse the project was to endorse the continued use of fossil fuels that cause numerous other problems, such as contamination of ground water, global warming and encouraging urban sprawl.

Board President Robert Barkei and board member Ken Koehler voted to grant the easement. Koehler expressed concern about the additional pipeline that would have to be laid if the easement were not granted.

"I could not in clear conscience want to see the pipeline run parallel to the Kishwaukee River, which is where it would go if we deny this," he said.

The line will run 108 miles from the Wisconsin border through McHenry, Kane and Kendall Counties, ending near Joliet in Will County.

Land acquisition is complete in Kane and Kendall, but negotiations continue for some parcels in Will. The pipeline will transport western Canadian crude oil to refineries in the south suburbs and northwest Indiana.

Conservation District staff recommended in a report released at the board's Oct. 15 meeting that the easement be granted because no threatened or endangered species lived in the area and there were already three existing natural-gas pipelines nearby.

The Duluth, Minn.-based company sought a 60-foot easement across 50 feet of property the district owns between Huntley and Union that is designated for a bicycle path.

To install the pipeline through that area, Lakehead wanted to bore underneath district property.

Lakehead commissioned a survey of 300 voters in the area last week and reported that 52 percent of those who were aware of the pipeline project opposed it being built through Conservation District land. But when informed of the proposal to give 122 acres of land in exchange for an easement, 58 percent of those surveyed approved it.